The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is studying potential use cases of blockchain technology, with an aim to ensure the privacy and security of aircraft flight data, as per a paper released on Jan 07.

The research paper was published by Ronald Reisman, an aero-computer engineer at NASA Ames Research Center.

The paper recommended that blockchain networks and smart contracts could help mitigate security issues associated with the aircraft. The United States will be incorporating a new surveillance system, starting from January 1, 2020.

The system, known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), will publicly broadcast aircrafts’ identity, position, and other such information. The U.S has been mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) calling for national adoption of the surveillance system.

Reisman later clarified that the new ADS-B “does not include provisions for maintaining these same aircraft-privacy options, nor does it address the potential for spoofing, denial of service, and other well-documented risk factors.”

Reisman presumes that blockchain technology has an answer in the form of an engineering prototype created using permissible blockchain.

“The design innovation is the use of an open source permissioned blockchain framework to enable aircraft privacy and anonymity while providing a secure and efficient method for communication with Air Traffic Services, Operations Support, or other authorized entities.”

The research paper also highlights a prototype known as the Aviation Blockchain Infrastructure (ABI), based entirely on Hyperledger Fabric and Smart contracts. The prototype allows the control over what data is shared publicly or privately with “other properly authorized entities.”

Information on flight-plan such as aircraft type, origin, destination, filed route, etc. can be published on a public channel that is accessible by all the approved members. While the aircraft state information, such as altitude, longitude, and latitude can be securely kept using a private channel.

Last year, NASA came into the headlines by offering $330,000 to Dr. Jin Wei Kocsis, a professor at the University of Akron (UA) for studying how an Ethereum based-blockchain could automatically detect debris floating in the space.

Blockchain technology cannot be simply ignored, as the tech is being used in several industries. The retail companies have started to implement the technology as it tracks consumable goods, from their origin it is produced until they reach the supermarket.